Every day at 12 p.m., 519 hungry students rush to lunch. The dining hall soon becomes a frenzy; lines reach as far back as the salad bar, forks run out in minutes, and the commotion at the tables makes it hard to hear anything. For the 2021- 2022 school year, Masters’ administration has decided to return to an Upper-School-wide lunch period for all ninth, tenth, eleventh, and twelfth grade students. The new schedule, which is a return to the school’s practice up until last year, has received varied reactions from students, as well as from faculty and custodial staff members.

Students have reacted both positively and negatively to this change, explaining that they do not have enough time to wait in long lines, as well as eat their food. “I felt very overwhelmed the first few times I walked into that dining hall the first week of school,” junior Morgan Young said. The initial reaction soon became realization that there are advantages to all high school students having one lunch period. “I really like that I can walk into lunch and not have to worry if any of my friends will have lunch the same period as me because we all have it together now,” Young said.

Students are not the only ones being affected by this lunch period, though. Kitchen and custodial staff now have to prep and prepare food for hundreds of students coming in to eat at the same time. Lee Bergelson, responsible for dining services at Masters has been working with the school for five years. “We obviously deal or do whatever we need to do in order to get out of the lunch and we won’t allow a schedule issue or change or impact how we can serve”

The kitchen staff is always prepared to serve students, faculty, and staff following a specific routine each time. “When it comes to the process of preparing food and serving in the dining hall it is obviously about flow.”

This lunch change was not done randomly. Administration had to make choices that were beneficial to faculty as well as students. Sara Thorn, Associate Head of the Upper School has been working at The Masters School for the past and explains that last year was the first year administration decided to do two different lunch periods for the Upper School. Thorn alluded to the fact that this may be the reason students feel overwhelmed in the dining hall.

She said, “I think it feels like a lot because we did have two lunch periods last year. We only began the year with 16 more students than we began the previous year with, So it’s not that many more human bodies in that space. I think after having some time with lunch periods, we may have forgotten what it felt like in that time.

” The process of forming the schedule is one that must include ways to optimize what is best for students, faculty, and staff. Thorn continued, “All schedules are a compromise, we just try to do what’s best for the most people.”